| The grand tours are over. The smaller races have been pigeon-holed
| between the end of the season and the first heavy rains.

| So it must be the time of year for riders to be training for cross
| rides.

| So what's up Doc?

Well most noticably, there's Paris-Tours (Or Tours-Paris,
depending upon which way they run it but strangely never change
the name) and Tour of Lombardy.

And we're lucky that at least a large part of the "old time high
end" calendar is still reasonably intact.

But I can remember, as a lad headquartered in Antibes, being able
to race every day in a race paying reasonable prizes and within
riding distance of Antibes, But not any more.

Portugal, whence I moved eight years ago, fares better but suffers
from a lack of top grade races. But at least there's a Bullfight
on Friday nights in Summer to compensate,

Cyclo-Cross has held up well, particularly in Flanders, but
Six-Day, where I sometimes got roped in as Stayer, has nosedived
until there is nothing left but a shell of the former calendar.

As Tennyson wrote: "The old order changeth, yielding place to
new,,," and I wouldn't mind betting that in the not too distant
future, having regard to demographics and Cultural Enrichment, the
Tour de France will be ridden on Camels.